A Hero's Life For Me
by Blue Dot77
Summary: A SHIELD agent with a dangerous touch, a girl from a different era, and one with a monster just under her skin. The three are more than meets the eye and never intended to be heroes. The life was thrust upon them, actually. (Will span all of the movies. Different pairings will arise as it goes along.)


It all started with a bit of ill-advised gambling.

"He is asking for something awful to happen to him," Emeric Rosenthal remarked as she leaned against the polished metal railing that separated her from the working SHIELD agents. Several agents were bustling around the main floor- passing files and typing away at their keyboards and tablets. No two people were working on the same case.

 _The world never changes, does it?_ Emeric wondered. _Not at the core, anyway._

Emeric was dressed a lot more casually than the other agents- just a simple mauve tank top and low rider jeans.

"What makes you say that, Vera?" the girl leaning backwards against the railing asked. She was peeking out from beneath her raven-colored bangs at Emeric. Her pale as snow fingers continued to flicker across the touch screen on her phone. She wasn't wearing the usual uniform either. Instead, she was wearing skin tight leather pants the color of red wine paired with black combat boots and a ribbed black tank top with a skeletal middle finger printed on the front.

" _Anthony Edward Stark_ should know better than to keep parading himself in his Armani suits all across the Middle East- in _war zones_ , for Christ's sake!" Emeric- a.k.a. Vera- replied irritably. "Especially when he is debuting the weapons we are meant to attack their lands with."

"Do you think he's going to get in trouble out there, Emeric?" Emmaline Ryan inquired as she approached the two, her fingers flicking through the file in her gloved hands. Her brilliant green eyes did not leave the text on the pages even as she spoke. As if just realizing that the two women in front of her were looking at her, Emma shut the file and raised her gaze. Her pinned back blonde hair was in a slight disarray- a very rare sight- and her cheeks were beginning to tinge a rosy pink color. She was wearing her white bodysuit that clung to her thin frame and had the SHIELD insignia blazoned across both shoulders in a pale pink similar to the lines on her suit. The front was unzipped enough to reveal a bit of her upper chest without showing too much cleavage.

 _"That way I can breathe,"_ Emeric had claimed when they first asked her.

Emeric reached up to brush some of her dark chocolate hair out of her face as she turned around to fully face Emma. She stood ramrod straight with her hands clasped behind her back- the posture of a soldier.

"It's only a matter of time," Emeric stated plainly. Her blue grey eyes seemed to be distant- as if her mind were on other things.

"Do you want to make a bet on that?" Spencer- the girl with black hair and eyes a startling blue as cold and pale as a glacier- asked as she pushed off of the railing and crossed her leather jacket clad arms. A wicked smirk was pulling at her lips.

"What is up for wager?" Emeric questioned as her own sly smirk slipped into place.

"A man's life," Director Fury scowled as he approached the trio. All three turned to face the imposing figure. His trademark scowl was in place. He was even in his trademark outfit- a black on black trench coat and turtleneck ensemble. " _Tony_ Stark was reported missing yesterday evening while travelling with some very _good_ soldiers."

"Ah, so the asshole finally poked the bear a bit too much, eh?" Spencer remarked- a mask of complete apathy in place. She couldn't care less that the 'Merchant of Death' was in trouble.

"Like him or not, Tony Stark is the son of one of SHIELD's primary founders," Director Fury pointed out in his angry, booming voice. "And since the three of you thought it was a good idea to joke around rather than actually- I don't know, doing something?- I am going to put you in charge of bringing him back. In one piece, if you don't mind."

"I will not take part in this," Emeric informed him in a strict tone. The air around her seemed to cool and Emma swiped at the condensation that was forming on the tough material of her suit.

"I wasn't asking," Fury replied, slapping a file down atop the one Emmaline was already holding. He turned on his heel in a fashion that sent his trench coat billowing out behind him dramatically and stormed off.

Emmaline opened up the new file, forgetting the old one as it fell and sent classified documents scattering across the polished floor. A nearby agent walked up and began gathering the papers. When he stood up straight his thin layer of stubble and crooked grin was instantly recognizable.

"I believe you dropped this, Agent Ryan," Agent Brock Rumlow informed Emmaline, holding out the reassembled file to her. The pink hue of Emma's cheeks turned a burning crimson as she jolted away from him. Her eyes grew to the size of saucers and her mouth opened as if to say something but nothing came out.

"Thank you, Rumlow," Emeric stepped forward, taking the file from him with a tight-lipped smile on her face. Rumlow gave her a curt nod before returning his gaze to Emmaline.

"I'll see you around, Agent Ryan," Brock stated hopefully.

"E-E-Emma. You can call me Emma," Emmaline stuttered.

"Emma," Brock smiled. He winked once and then walked off, joining another male agent in perusing information on a tablet. Emmaline was holding the file on Stark in her hands so tightly that it was bending a bit in her grip.

"Don't harm the innocent file, Em."

Spencer pulled herself off of the railing and removed the file from Emmaline's death grip- careful to avoid so much as brushing the other girl's gloves.

Spencer's eyes ran over the navy cover of the folder. If there had been more relevant information, it was stowed away in SHIELD's database. Opening up the folder, Spencer ran her eyes over the list of names, dates, and places that Director Fury had deemed important.

"Well, this just isn't going to do at all," Spencer clucked in disapproval.

"Please don't say it," Emeric groaned.

"Oh, I _love_ this part," Emmaline chittered, clapping her hands together excitedly.

"I need a computer," Spencer informed the other two women, shutting the folder and turning around. Spencer had one boot clad foot on the railing when she heard Emeric behind her.

"I thought we were done angering SHIELD- at least for a few weeks," Emeric complained in a hushed tone. Spencer flashed her a wide grin. "You're going to get us in trouble. Again."

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," Spencer stated with a flourish of her hand before turning back around and throwing herself over the railing. She dropped as gracefully as a feather but with the speed of a bowling ball and landed in a crouched position that absorbed most of the impact. Several SHIELD agents ignored her little display- it wasn't the first time Spencer had seemingly treated the base like her own personal jungle gym.

Making her way towards the nearest currently unoccupied desk, Spencer took a seat and began typing. Her fingers moved too quickly for the naked eye to follow as she broke through firewall after firewall.

"Agent McKinley, what are you doing?" Agent Phil Coulson asked as he walked up to the desk. Spencer didn't give him so much as a glance as her eyes ran over all of the information she had already uncovered.

"You know Fury and his goons- no offense- confiscated all of my technology," Spencer reminded the older agent. Coulson's eyes narrowed skeptically at her.

"That is because you have a record of leaking SHIELD files to the public," Coulson countered, slowly making his way around the desk to get a look at what Spencer was doing.

"Only when you were being annoying," Spencer assured him with a small smile pulling at her cherry red lips.

"Please enlighten me as to what you consider to be annoying, Miss McKinley," Phil crossed his arms and leaned his weight back onto one foot.

"There are so many things, Phillip. For one, I absolutely _loathe_ being referred to by my last name. Call me Spencer- hell call me _Iris_ if it makes you feel more 'professional'. The second thing would be the unbearable uniforms here. You're all either in bodysuits or _actual suits_. It's like an office job crossed with a pleasure dungeon without all of the cool office parties or a water dispenser," Spencer complained as her eyes caught sight of a video.

 _No time to watch it now, dammit,_ she thought as she turned her attention away from the video and to the GPS location of one _Anthony Edward Stark_.

"You want a water dispenser?" Coulson inquired, ignoring her reference to dominatrix's.

"No, not at all. What gave you that idea?" Spencer's eyebrows furrowed together as she finally looked away from the screen and at Coulson. "Something else annoying is the fact that Fury has deemed it necessary to keep one of his dogs nipping at my heels at all hours of the day- again, no offense."

"None taken. Given your abilities, Director Fury-"

"Blah, blah, blah. I don't care for excuses, Coulson. I care for-" Spencer pressed a key on the keyboard and the screen went completely black. Error code after error code filled up the screen as she rose from her seat and gave Coulson one of her most mischievous grins. "Action."

"What did you just do?" Coulson sighed, more defeated than actually angry with her.

"Come along, Spencer. We need to get going!" Emmaline shouted from the observation level above. She was waving one hand and covering her wide grin with the other one as she bent over the metal bar.

"That's my cue," Spencer winked at Coulson and took a starting run at the wall, channeling all of her strength into her legs. Her foot connected with the wall perfectly and she used it as a push off point. Spencer easily cleared the twelve foot wall and landed precariously on the railing. Wisps of black flickered around her feet like fire. Emmaline was outright laughing at this point- her gloved hands clutching her sides as she bent over. Emeric was not nearly as amused. Her eyes were glowing a pale blue color.

"Put on her collar, Emmaline," Emeric advised, crossing her arms as she scrutinized her companion. Spencer scowled, stepping down from the railing to join her comrades on the slate cerulean floor. "We can't risk a Code Black in a hot zone."

"I'm not going to go _Umbra_ on a simple in and out rescue mission, Vera," Spencer griped but did not fight against Emma as the girl pulled out a thick black collar. It looked like a regular piece of leather with a buckle; but that was simply a cover for the complicated mechanics inside. If Spencer's pulse spiked too high for too long- or if she pressed a hidden button on the side of the collar- it would inject her with a high dosage of an experimental tranquilizer. Supposedly, it would shut down Spencer's entire body- minus the vital systems that were needed in order to keep her alive. During trial tests, it had managed to knock three hundred pounds of man flat on his face within three seconds of application.

There had been a lot of hesitance towards testing it on Spencer. When she was in a calm state, the drug could knock her out in five seconds.

"What if I need her?" Spencer asked, tensing up under the feeling of Emmaline's gloved fingers fastening the collar around her neck. The black wisps around her feet had disappeared.

"Then take off the collar, Spence," Emmaline replied breezily, stepping back. "Did you get some good intel from the database?"

"I got enough," the ebony haired girl answered with a shrug. "At least enough that we're not going to be combing the Middle East for a short billionaire."

" _I_ am not combing anything either way," Emeric informed Spencer with a roll of her eyes. "I am going to be staying behind to monitor the database for further updates."

" _You_ are going to use a computer? You just discovered the internet three months ago!" Spencer exclaimed in disbelief, unable to comprehend how Emeric was going to be useful flailing around on a computer. She just learned the purpose of the 'Poke' function on Facebook a week ago.

"Yes, _I_ am," Emeric snapped, refusing to comment further as she took the pedestrian path towards the work desks. Spencer wondered why Emeric always did things the calm way.

"Well, where are we heading?" Emmaline asked with a bright, excited smile on her lips. Spencer grinned back in return, feeling a hum beneath her skin. It had been too long since she got to go for a run.

* * *

Infiltration was not Spencer's strong suit- at least not in the middle of the day. The sun was burning her skin even through the material of her tan pants and jacket. She absolutely loathed sunlight.

"Progress report?" Emmaline prompted through her comm link.

"I've dispatched... twelve? Wait," Spencer muttered, lifting her finger and counting the incapacitated men scattered across the ground. She felt something shift below her and swung her elbow into it. "Oh, thirteen. I missed the one I'm sitting on."

"You promised you'd lay low- _not get noticed_ ," Emmaline griped in Spencer's ear. Spencer scrutinized her fingernails, picking out some blood that had gotten underneath.

"I don't think they noticed," Spencer protested. It was true. The thirteen men appeared to be the guard for the cave. Currently, she was paused contemplating her next move. Not speaking their language made it very hard to get answers. On the other side of the comm link, Emma let out a long, drawn out sigh. "Anyway, I need to go spelunking for a billionaire."

Spencer rose and began walking straight towards the entrance to the cave-like bunker. She made her way through a rough corridor that was lined on the walls with crates, keeping an eye out for any possible cameras.

It was dark and humid inside of the cave and it only got worse as she continued on. Most of the guards were patrolling either alone or in pairs- easy enough to get rid of without making a fuss. She was actually starting to feel bad for the Ten Rings. If this was the detail they placed on Tony Stark, they were really going to need to step it up.

"They just don't make villains like they used to," Spencer grumbled, kicking aside one of their guns. It skittered noisily across the floor and Spencer cursed under her breath.

Several voices piped up down the hall and these men were ready for her. She held up her hands in mock surrender, a bitter smile on her lips. They lined up, rifles aimed at her torso.

"I'm going to warn you- though you probably don't understand English. If you shoot me, you're going to want to kill me," she promised, cracking her neck. The stiff collar chaffed her skin. Her heart was already beginning to hasten. Spencer took in deep, calming breaths and let their incomprehensible shouting fade to the back of her mind. She couldn't let Umbra out, but she could give them a little taste as long as she kept her pulse down.

Shadows licked up from her feet like flames and then shot forward, piercing three men in their chests and then dissipating.

"I really just came for Tony Stark- not to break up your precious tea party," Spencer insisted. At the sound of Stark's name, the remaining men went into a frenzy. One pulled his trigger and Spencer cried out when the bullet punctured her shoulder. " _Mother of fuck_."

The world tinged red and Spencer willed it back. Another gun went off and this time three bullets lodged into her thigh. Crimson leaked back into her vision and there was a prick in the side of her neck. Spencer felt the drug flood her system and started counting.

 _One._

Shadows stitched across her skin and Spencer screamed when they began digging out the bullets. Each one clattered onto the cave floor.

 _Two._

"Get out of here," Spencer warned them. The remaining men lifted their rifles and began firing, but a wall of shadows lifted and blocked them instantaneously.

"Spencer, what's going on down there?" Emmaline asked over the comm link.

"We...have a complication," Spencer admitted.

 _Three._

Spencer's tears ran like drops of blood from her eyes across her pale cheeks. Shadows lurched out from her body and began assaulting the men. More made their way down the hall and Spencer took off at a sprint.

 _Four._

 _I need to reach Tony. I have to reach him,_ Spencer mentally encouraged herself. She was doing her best to stave off the drug but the dosage kept upping the higher her pulse elevated.

 _Five._

Spencer broke through a door and collapsed on the cave floor, the world blurring around the edges. She heard a man shouting- in English this time. A kind man with deep lines in his face circular glasses perched on his nose was bent over her. The shadows receded and Spencer tried mumbling something coherent but ultimately failed.

 _Six._

The world turned black around her.

* * *

"I need her!" a man yelled. Spencer blinked, trying to clear her vision. She could barely make out the form of a short man standing in front of her. She was on a hard, rough surface- the ground? Her muscles were stiff and uncooperative. "She has small hands. I need someone with small hands. Tell them, Yinsen."

Another voice piped up in a language Spencer didn't understand. She struggled to sit up, pressing her hands into the pulsing sides of her head. Someone got shoved and the first man yelled a protest. Then, there was silence. Spencer strived to move but found her ankle was cuffed to a rusted, leaking pipe. She cursed under her breath and then turned her gaze up at the two men still in the room with her. One of them had tired, brown skin and glasses with very little hair upon his head.

The other man was tan and filthy with long, disheveled brown hair. His mustache and goatee were both unkempt. Through his dark brown tank, Spencer could make out a glowing blue shape cut into separate sectors. Her eyes moved back to his face and narrowed.

"Are you Anthony Stark?" Spencer asked, her voice coming out a bit raspy. Her muscles were beginning to relax bit by bit. The man's eyes widened at her recognition.

"I see I'm still famous," he replied, earning a disapproving look from both Spencer and the older man. "So, who are you and how did you break into the Legion of Doom?"

Spencer let out a sharp laugh.

"I'm Spencer, and I guess you could say I'm the rescue party," she admitted, laughing when Tony's face fell at bit at her remark. She held her hand up to her ear and prodded, noticing that her communication device was still there. Spencer pulled it out and eyed the small ear piece. "Any way you have some tools in this deplorable batcave? My comm link got severed during the scuffle."

"I do not think that we have the tools for such a device," the older man informed her with a frown. "I am Yinsen."

"It's nice to meet you, Yinsen," Spencer replied with a smile. "Does anyone want to tell me why I am cuffed to a fucking pipe?"

"They do not trust you," Yinsen answered.

"Maybe they're not as dumb as I thought," Spencer hummed, examining the chain running between her ankle and the pipe. She didn't currently have the strength to break out and, if she did, she would have the remainder of the Ten Rings just outside of the door within minutes. Spencer wouldn't be able to guarantee Tony's safety. "Do either of you two have a plan to get out of this hellhole?"


End file.
